The end of food (as we know it)

Posted by Roger on May 28, 2008 at 2:05pm in Food for thought

'Everyone has to be asking themselves, what am I going to do, not if the system breaks down, but when.'— Paul Roberts

You've got to hand it to journalist Paul Roberts. He started writing about the end of cheap oil when most Americans were still out shopping for a new SUV and now has just released his new book "The End of Food", a book he started when the current food crisis was but a gray cloud on a distant horizon.

He and his book are featured in this article by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/05/26/f-qanda-paulroberts.html

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Permalink Reply by John Walker on May 30, 2008 at 2:09pm: I thought that decimating whole populations in the name of trade was called agriculture. Actually if populations were just decimated (kill at random 1 out of 10; pour encourager les autres ) it might be OK, what they are is almost deunximated (11 out of 12 destroyed ) or decunxinated (10 out of 12 destroyed)
If anyone knows enough latin to offer more reliable fractions please post.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Penelope on May 30, 2008 at 2:13pm: The populations decimated to appease the great god of agriculture includes humans as well -- ironic, i guess.

Permalink Reply by Brook on May 30, 2008 at 11:26am: Soooooo......

Ol' Abe was a poacher of renoun. Everybody---including the local game warden---knew it. Indeed, with the exception of the game warden, everybody benefitted by purchasing game from Abe.

The warden was determined to catch him. But never could. At least once a week he'd sneak up around Abe's cabin, and wait for him to make his rounds. Each time, no matter how stealthy he'd been, Abe would come out about Midnight, and say, "well warden, I'm heading for bed. You may as well go home."

This went on for years.

Finally, at his retirement party, the warden called Abe over. "I've got to know," he said. "How is it that every night I picked to try and sneak up on you you came out and said we should both pack it in?

Ol' Abe looked to the right. He looked to the left. He beckoned the warden closer, and whispered the secret in his ear:

Why, warden, I thought you'd have it figured out by now. I said that every night!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kate on May 30, 2008 at 4:26pm: Love that story!

Funny to get up at 6am and find you have all been discussing wild and feral and what it means in Australia while I have been asleep! Brook is right. And the reason for killing feral (ie not native) animals is that our landscape is so fragile and anything - like 1 fox or feral cat, that breed like flies - can kill off a whole population of ground-dwelling mammals in a couple of years. So many of them have become extinct. That's the other thing - we ~~have~~ had lots of little mammals living in burrows - now we have rabbits. Several times diseases have been introduced into the rabbit populations and this knocks the numbers for a while - it is shocking I know - but for every rabbit killed, there are dozens of native animals saved.

I hate killing things - even snails and even pulling out plants when they have spent a whole summer giving me food( like capsicums) and I put it off for weeks....sob.....but I am realistic too, eventually, and we can't separate ourselves from life or we end up where we are today! I am happy to catch and gut fish and, if I had the opportunity I would make myself catch and kill and gut other animals etc too, like all other generations of humans have for about 40,000 years!

Lots of people here join in the annual cull of goats and deer in our local (well, it depends what that means - my state is enormous!) national parks. They are allowed to keep any feral animals they shoot and my brother loves to do this.

Don't forget that here it is rare for a person to have a gun (except farmers) and they must be kept under strict safety conditions, locked in a cupboard, separate from the bullets. This feral hunting is one of the few reasons anyone would have a gun, in the city. Some of the people are pretty feral too!...I am not that feral...yet...but I am working on it!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Brook on May 30, 2008 at 8:13pm: >and anything - like 1 fox or feral cat, that breed like flies <

Uh, ummmm, Kate? Other than mollies, which are born pregnant, it takes more than one......